How will you facilitate an authentic collaborative learning experience to promote deeper student engagement with content skills and concepts?
According to Ertmer and Simons (2006) collaboration is a key component of PBL learning environments, as it allows students to draw on each other’s perspectives and talents in order to more effectively devise solutions for the problem(s) at hand. A good collaborative teacher must be able to relinquish their responsibilities to the students. Therefore, in order for me to provide my students with an authentic collaborative learning experience I will take the role of a facilitator. My goal will be to provide scaffolding, encouragement and help manage to the students during the PBL project.
As members of collaborative groups, how will you support students’ efforts to identify solutions to the problem you are using as the framework for your PBL instructional unit?
To start, I have to make sure that they student have access to all materials and tools needed for the project. Additionally, as the facilitator, monitoring of the student’s progress should be continuous. According to Ertmer and Simons (2006), “The use of frequent checkpoints and record-keeping devices (e.g., group folders, design diaries, goal charts) can keep students focused and provide opportunities for reinforcement or redirection” (p.46-47).
What criteria will you use to assign learners to collaborative groups, including a rationale? What will be the size of the collaborative groups you will include in your unit?
Groups will be formed based on the students’ level/ability( homogenously). Meaning, the high students will be in a group together. The medium performing students are grouped together, and the lower performing students are group together. The reason the groups will be formed this way is because in the past, when I have created heterogeneous groups the higher performing students tend to take over the groups, thus creating intimidation among the lower performing students. Which lead them to not contributing much to the group’s project. By grouping the students homogenously, students in each group are challenged to step up as leaders and they feel more comfortable because they are approximately on the same skill or performance level as their group peers.
Which digital tools and websites are you considering for collaboration in your unit?
Some of the digital tools that I am considering for collaboration in my PBL unit are:
Twiducate
Wikispace
Edmodo
How will you assess participation of the students in their collaborative groups?
One of the best tools to measure student participation is a rubric. For this project the students will have the opportunity to brainstorm what their standards are for good collaboration in a group. After the students have brainstormed effective collaboration characteristics, they will create a rubric using the criteria’s. This will allow the students to take ownership of their participation.
How will you facilitate an authentic collaborative learning experience to promote deeper student engagement with content skills and concepts?
According to Ertmer and Simons (2006) collaboration is a key component of PBL learning environments, as it allows students to draw on each other’s perspectives and talents in order to more effectively devise solutions for the problem(s) at hand. A good collaborative teacher must be able to relinquish their responsibilities to the students. Therefore, in order for me to provide my students with an authentic collaborative learning experience I will take the role of a facilitator. My goal will be to provide scaffolding, encouragement and help manage to the students during the PBL project.
As members of collaborative groups, how will you support students’ efforts to identify solutions to the problem you are using as the framework for your PBL instructional unit?
To start, I have to make sure that they student have access to all materials and tools needed for the project. Additionally, as the facilitator, monitoring of the student’s progress should be continuous. According to Ertmer and Simons (2006), “The use of frequent checkpoints and record-keeping devices (e.g., group folders, design diaries, goal charts) can keep students focused and provide opportunities for reinforcement or redirection” (p.46-47).
What criteria will you use to assign learners to collaborative groups, including a rationale? What will be the size of the collaborative groups you will include in your unit?
Groups will be formed based on the students’ level/ability( homogenously). Meaning, the high students will be in a group together. The medium performing students are grouped together, and the lower performing students are group together. The reason the groups will be formed this way is because in the past, when I have created heterogeneous groups the higher performing students tend to take over the groups, thus creating intimidation among the lower performing students. Which lead them to not contributing much to the group’s project. By grouping the students homogenously, students in each group are challenged to step up as leaders and they feel more comfortable because they are approximately on the same skill or performance level as their group peers.
Which digital tools and websites are you considering for collaboration in your unit?
Some of the digital tools that I am considering for collaboration in my PBL unit are:
How will you assess participation of the students in their collaborative groups?
One of the best tools to measure student participation is a rubric. For this project the students will have the opportunity to brainstorm what their standards are for good collaboration in a group. After the students have brainstormed effective collaboration characteristics, they will create a rubric using the criteria’s. This will allow the students to take ownership of their participation.
Resources
Ertmer, P., & Simons, K. (2006). Jumping the PBL implementation hurdle: Supporting the efforts of K–12 teachers. The Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based
Learning, 1(1), 40–54. Retrieved from http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=ijpbl